Information and Imagery from Ukraine

Abraham Manievich

Self-portrait (1924)

Abraham Manievich (1881-1942) was born in Mstislavl (today Belarus), where he lived for 20 years before moving to Kyiv. From 1901-05 he studied at the Kyiv Art School, and after graduation at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich until 1907. He became one of the first professors of the Ukrainian Academy of Arts, and in 1913 held a very successful exhibition in Paris. He attempted to paint in the style of cubism and cubo-futurism, and believed the Russian Revolution of 1917 would free Jewish art from the constraints of tsarism. But he soon found himself alienated for his religion and his art. In 1921, less than two years after his son was murdered in a pogrom, Manievich emigrated to America. He died in New York.